Quick braze repair on garden trowels with poor design

[FliesLikeABrick]

My wife picked up a few garden trowels from what she thought was one of the better brands ("Ames" iirc instead of the low end store brand stuff) in a local home center last year or the year before. You know, spending a few more dollars to find something that might hold up better over time in its construction or handles or something....

Well that backfired, all 3 had their weldment fail in the same way if you put a bit too much torquing load on them -- just not enough cross-section to the joint if not other design or process failures



My thought was to braze it - this is some kind of stainless alloy, which I am not set up to weld properly. But I can braze it and have that handy.

Cleaned up the first one and gave it a shot



Clamped



Not great, I think I got things a bit too hot or maybe had a carburizing flame that got in the way of good wetting. Or maybe my cleaning wasn't good enough (that cleaning picture above may be from the second trowel)




Second attempt came out cleaner.

Based on how much braze rod I flowed into the joint, I am optimistic that it did wet most or all of the mating faces between the two parts





That's all on this one, thanks for reading

 

[MrWhoopee]

How did you keep the handles from melting?

 

[FliesLikeABrick]

How did you keep the handles from melting?

Great question! I wrapped a very wet rag around the shaft of the towel and made sure it was soaking wet before and immediately after the use of heat